Build Your Own Innovation Capabilities Studies

The datasets underpinning the Innovation Capabilities Outlook 2026 are publicly available, empowering researchers and analysts to conduct their own sophisticated innovation capability studies, supporting deep-dive analysis tailored to specific countries, industries, or research questions.

Access Datasets

What is this data about?

The Innovation Capabilities Datasets provide key resources for research across over 2,500 innovation fields in 193 economies from 2001-2023.  

Built from billions of data points spanning scientific publications, international patents, trademark filings, and export data, these datasets enable researchers to move beyond broad global analyses to conduct more precise, contextualized studies of specific innovation ecosystems or sectoral transformations.

For example, the datasets can help reveal how innovation capabilities connect to each other. Fields requiring similar knowledge, technologies, or institutions appear closer together in the innovation space. This network structure allows researchers to identify which new capabilities make sense for specific economies or industries based on their current strengths, rather than treating all fields as equally accessible.

Conduct Deep-Dive Economy Analysis

Researchers can now map innovation trajectories at the economy level in considerable detail. Trace how economies like Vietnam built their capabilities over two decades, identify which sectors drove complexity gains in South Korea, or analyze why some countries with strong scientific foundations struggle with technological translation. The datasets reveal not just what countries produce, but insights into how their capability portfolios evolved and interconnected over time.

Explore Industry Innovation Patterns

Sectoral analysts can examine how specific industries develop globally, identifying which countries dominate particular innovation domains and why. Study biotechnology capability concentration patterns, analyze renewable energy innovation networks, or investigate how digital technologies spread across different economic contexts. 

Comprehensive Research Tools

The dataset package includes eight files that provide research infrastructure, delivered in Parquet format for optimal performance and compatibility. Parquet files offer efficient compression and fast query performance for large datasets, making them ideal for handling billions of data points across multiple dimensions and time periods.

Parquet files can be easily opened using Python, R, SQL databases, or other business intelligence tools.

Democratizing Advanced Analysis

This level of sophisticated economic complexity analysis was previously limited to specialized institutions with substantial analytical resources. The public release broadens access to methodologies and data that can inform significant policy decisions and strategic investments. Academic institutions, policy research organizations, and independent researchers worldwide can now conduct studies using the analytical framework that revealed the global innovation divide and substantial untapped potential.